National Blog

This Week on Capitol Hill

This week, the House will be voting on a "clean" Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. The "clean" version is a stripped-down BBA that once passed the House in 1995. Unfortunately, it also has no requirement for a super-majority to raise taxes, making it likely the budget could be balanced-up (by raising taxes) rather than down (by cutting spending).

Many outside groups feel that passage of this "clean" BBA would be worse than no BBA at all. What are your thoughts?

The Senate will be taking up a "minibus" (the nickname for a collection of smaller appropriations bills into a larger, but not all encompassing, spending bill) encompassing Energy and Water, Financial Services and General Government and State-Foreign Operations.

By Thursday or Friday of this week, both Chambers will be expected to take up a short-term CR (continuing resolution) as part of a conference report on a different minibus than the one being taken up this week in the Senate. This short-term CR is expected to fund the government for around another month until December 12, as the current CR only funds the government until this Friday.